Tony Samuel Joins!

Nigel (0:01)

Hello, my name is Nigel, Jason Hammer is here with a very special in-studio guest.

Jason Hammer (0:07)

Back from Dallas and the midterm convention, our guy Tony Samuel. How was the Lone Star State?

Tony Samuel (0:16)

I had fun. It was cool.

You know, a good party, a good way to get the base fired up and others, the party fired up. And yeah, I enjoyed it. I got to spend some time on the floor as a delegate and then some time up in the suites. So that was nice.

Jason Hammer (0:35)

Cool. What's the party scene like? Like, so we see what happens on television or in this case, the highlights on social media because they made the mistake of competing with the NFL.

That's for another discussion.

But like behind closed doors, like if it's 11 o'clock at night, the hotel bar, are people partying? Or is this like the worst wedding everybody's been to?

Tony Samuel (0:58)

A little of both. I mean, it depends. Our hotel bar was OK, crowded, getting late night meal and drinks, of course.

And then when he stepped out, I was at a Ritz Carlton one night in the bar, and that was nice, but smaller. And folks dressed up and just kind of unwinding. And then went to a couple of receptions, one with a stage with a band. And Rick Scott was there. It was fun.

Nigel (1:26)

You mentioned getting the base fired up. Was that the core goal of this midterm convention?

Tony Samuel (1:37)

Yeah, it really was. And this was Trump's idea, as you guys know and have said, this is the first time for any party to do a midterm convention than they've normally done the year that you're nominating your presidential candidate.

And it was because what we've seen in 2018 is when Trump's not on the ballot, his Trump base doesn't come out as strongly. And I can tell you, back in 2016, Rex Early and I, Rex was a former Indiana state GOP chairman. And so for the campaign, we were co-chairs, or he was chair, I was vice chair. And we traveled from Labor Day to Election Day. We traveled the state, we did over half of the counties, or like 46, 47 counties, some of them multiple times, like Vigo, we've been, you know, three times. We would have meetings, and it would be half regular GOP folks and half Trump voter. And you'd talk to this Trump voter, this new voter, and there were Vietnam vets, there were truckers, there were farmers. And you'd say, you know, why do you like Trump? They say, I've been waiting my whole life. I haven't voted, or I haven't voted for 20 years. I don't trust Washington.

I've been waiting for a guy like this. Those are the Trump voters and a whole lot of others. It's not just folks from rural Indiana. It's folks from everywhere. But that that specific type of voter, we need them to come out, even though he's not on the ballot. That's why he kept saying, pretend I'm on the ballot.

Jason Hammer (3:01)

And trust me, we haven't forgot. We're going to get to the shots here in just a moment.

We usually do that before we talk local government, because we need a little help with that, good god. But one more thing on the Trump thing, though. Yes, Trump's approval ratings can go up, can go down. There are Republicans, many people who voted for Donald Trump three times, and I fall into this category, that are getting a little worn out by what's happening in Iran, because it's gone from, oh, it's going to take six weeks. Well, it'll be done before the midterms, and now it's after the midterms. There are folks like me that are like, I don't think this is good as we head into the midterms.

Tony Samuel (3:41)

Yeah, and I would just say, you know, the president has a lot of information and a lot of, you know, military knowledge from his military leaders that we aren't privy to, obviously, of course.

But, you know, I trust that he's making the right decision. You've got a way. You don't want to end up sending in, having to send in ground forces. Nobody wants that. I think that's clear.

And then, you know, I think he's giving them a lot of time to make up, you know, to surrender, in a sense. That hasn't happened yet. They keep dropping bombs, you know, and the Houthis now are doing, being more and more aggressive. He needs, I think he needs to take decisive action. I think he will. The other thing about just Republicans and, you know, what happens this time of year election, whether it's general or, you know, every four years or every midterm election, you start hearing, well, the poll numbers are not so great for Trump. And some Republicans start to shy away. I think that's a big problem. He's accomplished so much in his years in office, both the first term and the second term so far, that Republicans, if they would stick with him and share that message, not leave him out there alone, because he's going to be campaigning hard all over the country these two months. I'd like to see Republicans stick with him, rather than just need him when they need to win a primary.